Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

generally recognized at that time as causing injury to those markets. In contrast, Trefnant (Castle Caereinion) was actually closer to the market at Montgomery than had been the previous market at Welshpool itself; Trefnant Fechan was insignificantly more distant and still within the confines of the borough of Welshpool; Trefnant Fawr was also only a short distance further away and lay in a remote valley with poor access. ■ The grantee named in the royal charter, Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn, was at the critical time an exile based in Shrewsbury and was extremely anxious to establish his claims in Nether Gorddwr in which Trefnant (Alberbury) was situated. Trefnant Fawr was then a possession of the Abbey of Strata Marcella and therefore not within the gift of the lordship of Powys. ■ Although the 1279 charter describes the location as 'Trevenant in Powis', the reversion charter of 1282 corrects this to 'Trevenant in the said March'. ■ Trefnant (Alberbury) was the only site that could have been correctly described at this date as a manor of Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn. THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND AND THE GORDDWR DISPUTE TO 1276 The Gorddwr, to which Trefnant (Alberbury) belonged, was the region on the eastern side of the Severn stretching from the borders of Kerry and the Clun Forest in the south to the northern boundary ofCriggion in the north. It was divided into two parts, Nether Gorddwr (shown in fig. 1) and Over Gorddwr. Archdeacon Thomas in his history of the Gorddwr stated that, in the time of Edward the Confessor, the Gorddwr was not within the English hegemony but continued to be a part of Powys.4 After the Norman conquest the area was claimed by the Corbets of Caus as part of their Walcheria. This eventually gave rise to a dispute between Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn, who claimed the territory by ancient inherit- ance, and the contemporary heads of the Corbet family, who first held the land by grant of Roger de Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury.5 The contentions between Gruffudd and Thomas Corbet commenced immediately upon Gruffudd's restoration to Powys early in 1241 and were not resolved at a dies amoris held in March that year. Very soon thereafter the Welsh prince accused Corbet of arresting his men on the highway whilst coming and going to the markets at Montgomery and Shrewsbury and of other harassments in the disputed territory. The English jury under the sheriff of Shropshire found Thomas not guilty of these charges. The situation was further complicated by an additional factor. Gruffudd's mother, Margaret, was a sister of Thomas Corbet and her marriage to Gwenwynwyn before 1200 certainly brought a portion of the Gorddwr to the Welsh prince. In 1246, Gruffudd's mother died leaving inter alia her inherited lands in the Gorddwr. This portion, comprising at least the townships of Buttington, Trewern and Hope on the west side of the Breidden hills, was later devised by Gruffudd to his English wife, Hawise Lestrange. Then in 1252, while the 4D. R. Thomas, Montgomeryshire Collections 38 (1918),185-212. 5For further details of the prolonged dispute between Gruffudd and the Corbets see C. J. Spurgeon, 'Gwyddgrug Castle (Forden) and the Gorddwr dispute in the thirteenth century', Montgomeryshire Collections 57 (1962), 125-136; Davies op. cit. (note 3), 333-41. 6Curia Regis Rolls 18(1243-1245), 168/9; Shropshire Eyre Roll 96 (1980), 137-8, no. 335; A. Harding, (ed.), The Roll of the Shropshire Eyre of 1256 (London, 1981), xxvii, 137, 282, 329.